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Aluminum welds

Some of my welds are shiny when some have a dull cast to them. Both welds look good. It seems like the weld I ran a little hotter and faster was shiny compared to a slower travel and lower heat. Welds are the same size. Is one weld better than the other? Tigging on aluminum. Amps, gas flow, are identical. Only difference was the foot pedal and speed.

I think he has a Syncrowave 200. I agree with you, I think it would help to turn his balance down to about 4 . It looks like there is still some contamination from the black flakes and the looks of the weld. I sent him a PM if he keeps having problems. He is about 25 miles from me.

I think he has a Syncrowave 200. I agree with you, I think it would help to turn his balance down to about 4 . It looks like there is still some contamination from the black flakes and the looks of the weld. I sent him a PM if he keeps having problems. He is about 25 miles from me.

bvweld: Thanks for your support.
I was refering to post #3, where mikesparks said he always gets a shinny weld.

FWIW: The reason your guote of me didn't work, you forgot the {/quote] before your comment.

Some of my welds are shiny when some have a dull cast to them. Both welds look good. It seems like the weld I ran a little hotter and faster was shiny compared to a slower travel and lower heat. Welds are the same size. Is one weld better than the other? Tigging on aluminum. Amps, gas flow, are identical. Only difference was the foot pedal and speed.

Originally Posted by Bert

I was told/taught if your weld is too hot (foot down too hard or too slow a speed), it'll look hazy. Want a shiny weld? Control the right heat more.
FusionKing: any advice?

I think it has to do with the cleaning cycle of AC. Slower would mean more cleaning happening. I'm sure somebody like KB or SundownIII or Andy would give a much better explained answer tho and maybe a better reason.
I usually weld a little slow anyhow unless it's getting pretty close to lunch or dinner time
Hotter and faster and rythym make the best looking beads IMO and the HAZ would be smaller also.

You got it. Run hot and run fast. No metalurgist, but suspect that it has something to do with prolonged heat changing the molecular structure of the aluminum.

I'm not in their league, but the best anodized aluminum tig welders (tower builders) I've worked with are running at about 195A without a foot or finger amp control. Just a simple on/off switch on the torch. High amps breaks up the anodizing, creates a great bead, and limits the heat transfer. With towers, the welds are painted after welding for protection but the weld bead is shiny. The paint, as I said, is only to prevent oxidation since it's physically impossible to reanodize an entire tower. Some tower builders use 4043 but the better ones use 5356 even though it will not be reanodized.

I've actually found, in most cases, that the Sync 250 is a little more forgiving of technique than the Dynasty's. Maybe it's just me. Good friend of mine (one of those experts) used to use a 250 and now has the Dynasty 300. Says he'd never go back. Guess I haven't used an inverter enough to fully take advantage of the freq. adjustments.

Hope this helps.

PS There was an excellent article written several years ago which circulated around the boards a few months back. In that article they interviewed several of the guys from Pipewelders (Fl Towerbuilders) who developed the bump techinique for welding anodized aluminum. (I posted a link at that time--do a search for anodized aluminum). The son of the owner of Pipewelders, Edison Irving, is a close friend of mine and taught me a lot about the technique.

KP and Engloid are the two tiggers on the board who I have been most impressed with. Both their welding and understanding of why certain things happen in the bead. ASKANDY is probably there too, but I haven't seen as much of his work. If any of those three make a comment regarding tig, you can take it as gospel.